Riverdays, Midland Balloon Festival to unite on new date

Midland Daily News

Published
1:30 am EDT, Saturday, September 23, 2017

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Beginning in 2018, the Midland Balloon Festival will be a part of the Midland Area Community Foundation's annual Riverdays Festival, another weekend-long event that draws thousands of visitors each year. The partnership will bring about a location and date change for the event.

"This is a natural partnership," said Dave Kell, co-chair of the Riverdays planning committee. "Since we moved most events to the Farmers Market side of the river this year with overwhelmingly positive feedback, Chippewassee Park is now wide open. It's a perfect opportunity to combine these events."

"Events like this take a ton of behind-the-scenes work. By combining Riverdays and the Balloon Festival, we're able to focus more on doing what we do best: flying balloons," said Steve King, competition director for the Midland Balloon Festival.

The dates for the event are set for Aug. 2 through Aug. 5, 2018. Riverdays will take place on Aug. 3 and Aug. 4, with the other two days primarily featuring hot air balloon events.

"In addition to the Balloon Festival and other aspects of Riverdays, we culminate the weekend with the Esther Gerstacker Fireworks show," Kell said. "We've long thought about spacing our display from the July 4 show. Combining these events is a great opportunity to do that."

Many of the events surrounding the Riverdays weekend will take advantage of the updated festival-friendly streetscape in downtown Midland, including the Main Street Glow event on Aug. 2 and the Riverdays street party on Aug. 3. Event organizers say that more information will be available on both of their websites in the coming months. Find out more at www.riverdaysmidland.com and www.midlandballoonfest.com.